


when we were young, like birds flying free

by autumnalesque



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Cute Kids, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:47:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22748815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumnalesque/pseuds/autumnalesque
Summary: For dimilix week, day #2. I chose the prompt "childhood".A time before. Late afternoons, sunlight streaming through fogged glass windows. The quiet, muted sound of a piano playing. The sound of laughter filtering down warm, lived-in halls.Glimpses of a time when things were easier.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	when we were young, like birds flying free

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write something softer for this one; the image of Felix when he was younger and more of a crybaby is probably my favorite little detail we get for any character in the entire game. I love thinking about how things were before the tragedy, because Felix may not have been there like Dimitri was, but in a way he also died that day anyway. :(
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!

"Felix," Dimitri says, and Felix feels it all the way in his stomach, a warm feeling like butterflies that makes his skin tingle. They are ten years old, and Dimitri lies next to him on the floor of Felix's bedroom, close but not /too/ close. Felix could reach out and touch him if he wanted to, and that reassurance is nice. "Do you think I'll be able to be a knight like Glenn is going to be, one day?"

Felix thinks this is a silly question. "Of course not," he says, and he tilts his head just enough to catch the look of disappointment on Dimitri's face. "You're going to be a king, dummy.” Felix is trying his best to imitate the way Glenn pokes fun at Dimitri, and it seems to land, because Dimitri makes a face at him that makes him laugh in a way no one else can manage. 

“But I want to be a knight, like Glenn. Like you’re going to be, one day. Father does all this boring stuff, he has to listen to those stuffy old men talk in a room all day. There’s nothing fun about being king.” 

Felix shrugs, counting the stones on the ceiling in his head. “When I’m your knight I’ll protect you from listening to stuffy old men all day, then. We’ll have as much fun as you want. Even if Glenn tries to tell us otherwise. One day I’ll be better with a sword than him, anyway.” 

Dimitri laughs. “You promise?” he says, and he’s sitting up now, looking down at Felix expectantly. His eyes are the same blue as the sky on a clear day in summer. They’re Felix's first clear memory, and his father says he was meant to be Dimitri's shield before he was even born. 

Felix hopes he is right, more than anything. 

“Promise,” he says, and he holds up his pinky, waiting for Dimitri to take it. Dimitri locks his pinky around Felix's, and his smile is as bright as the sun, as a future just beginning to take shape. Felix can see the vague outline of it, of a Dimitri grown, crown atop that golden head; and himself, a steady, constant presence at his king's side. 

The image of it is broken no sooner than he sees it, though, because Dimitri is ruffling Felix's hair, now, a devious grin on his face. “You’ll have to stop being such a crybaby first, though. It wouldn’t become my most handsome, valiant knight to be moved to tears at the slightest thing. Ingrid says she saw you crying over a flower someone had stepped on the other day.” 

Felix groans, trying to shove Dimitri’s hand away from him, out of his hair. He is stronger than Felix, though, and holds firm, fingers ruffling his hair so much that Felix thinks it will be a nightmare to comb out, later. “Ingrid is a liar,” he says, stubbornly. “Don’t listen to her. She just pretends to like me because she’s betrothed to my brother.” 

"Why must you always treat her so, Felix? Ingrid is lovely, and she cares for you too, in her own way.” Dimitri chastises him, and Felix makes a face, looking away from him.

“She never asks me anything about myself, it’s always ‘Glenn this, Glenn that’. Everyone always cares more about my brother than me.” he says, irritably.

Dimitri’s hand finds his, and the feeling of it startles Felix almost enough to pull away but not quite. He sits up, though, pulling his knees to his chest and looking at their hands, fingers interlocked. 

“That isn’t true, Felix, and you know it. Of course I love Glenn, he’s like the older brother I don’t have. You know what our fathers say, that you and I were born for each other. Like Loog and his sworn shield, Kyphon. You’re my best friend, Felix. My heart wouldn’t be complete without you.” he says, and the raw, open honesty on his face makes Felix’s chest feel tight for reasons he doesn’t understand. 

_My heart wouldn’t be complete without you._

His cheeks feel warm, and he tries to hide it by burying his face against his knees, out of sight even from Dimitri’s watchful gaze. His heart beats so fast he can hear it in his ears; a strange, staccato beat, like a bird trapped in a cage.

“Felix?” Dimitri says, worry in his voice. 

“You’re so stupid,” Felix mutters, “You can’t just go saying things like that! You sound like Sylvain when he’s trying to woo some stupid girl.” 

He glances up, then, to see Dimitri’s own cheeks go bright red. He pulls his hand from Felix’s, then, and cradles the hand that had held his like it’d been burned. Felix feels slightly guilty, but even so...

_Who says things like that? So embarrassing!_

“I’m sorry, I spoke out of turn,” Dimitri says, in a way that suggests he’s rehearsed having to say this sort of thing many, many times before. Felix watches as he withdraws into himself a little, and the sight of it is something Felix hates seeing more than anything. He lifts his head, then, and reaches out to take Dimitri’s hand again.

“You don’t have to apologize,” he says, carefully looking away. “Come on, let’s go down to the drawing room. Father’s been teaching me magic, did you know? Maybe I can get him to let me show you a little.” 

Dimitri’s eyes go wide, his pale cheeks stained with pink. His face lights up, and he lets Felix tug him to his feet and off down the hall to the stairs, their hands held fast. Felix cherishes the feeling of it, the informality; without Lambert around, the two of them could act more as equals instead of a lord and his liege. Felix’s father, Rodrigue, always encouraged it in a way King Lambert did not. 

It would be some years before Felix could look back on this time and realize how lucky they’d been, indeed. Some years before he could think back on moments like these and realize how blessed the two of them had been, and how much family had meant to the both of them. 

At this moment, though, Felix thinks there could be nothing better in the world than the vast halls of House Fraldarius, warm even in the cold of winter, with the other half of his heart by his side, their hands joined together like a unspoken promise for the future.


End file.
